((This is about Zach Varmitech from @martincrushcameback apocalypse au. This story contains depictions of death, destruction, and dead people. If you choose to read, I hope you enjoy!))
Zach looked around at the destruction that was once a bustling city as he wandered aimlessly with a few Zachbots following him.
What was once a city full of life was now quiet, except for the roars of monsters. He shook his head in disbelief. Everywhere he looked, he saw the results of his mistake. The worst being the remains of people that couldn't get away from the monsters, or hide fast enough.
He knew he should be hiding, too. He shouldn't be wandering around like this out in the open. Not when he could so easily be found and attacked. But he had to see it. He had to see everything with his own eyes. He had to see what he had caused. And it was horrible.
As Zach walked, something caught his attention from the corner of his eye. He ran towards the object and picked it up with shaking hands. He had to choke back sobs as he stared at the bicycle helmet. He knew this helmet. The stickers were all too familiar. It had belonged to a kid whom he had chased away from his building on multiple occasions. They had never done anything wrong, Zach had just thought he was a pesky kid. As he held the helmet, something else caught his attention in front of him that made his blood run cold.
There was an arm sticking out from under a flipped car. It was covered in cuts and scrapes, probably from the car getting wrecked. It was the band on the arm's wrist that made Zach react. It had belonged to the same kid that owned the helmet. He knew what that meant, and it made his heart drop.
Zach had never wanted this for the kid. Hell, he never wanted this for anyone. The weight of everything suddenly hit him. His heart began pounding, and he fell to his knees in despair as he clutched the helmet to his chest. He began to openly sob, his mind and heart filled with nothing but pain.
A low, rumbling growl broke him from his thoughts. He swiftly turned around in time to see a monster not too far behind him. He wiped his eyes and tried to find a place to hide. He decided on trying to make his way into the flipped car. He got in through a broken window as quietly as he could.
"Zachbots, lay down quietly and deactivate." Zach whispered just loud enough for the bots to hear. They did as they were told, laying on their backs as the low humming sound signaled their deactivation. Zach could hear the monster approaching and held his breath as he crouched down as low as he could go.
He couldn’t see the monster, but he could certainly hear it. He could hear its claws scraping along the pavement. He could hear its growls as it walked by. He could only imagine how it was searching for something. Searching for him. He didn't dare to move. He didn't dare to breathe. Not even when the grating sound of metal being torn apart filled his ears. He truly felt that he was going to die. But a roar in the distance stopped the monster. Zach listened as it stopped tearing through metal and ran away towards the roar. Only then did he breathe.
Zach waited a few more minutes before slowly moving to get out of the car. What he found almost drove him to tears again. His Zachbots had been torn to shreds. Their parts scattered all over the place. He looked around, trying to find something that might give him even an ounce of hope. He breathed a sigh of relief when he found two of his bots still intact. He ran over to them and activated them again.
"Looks like you two are all I have left." Zach said solemnly to himself. Saying the words out loud felt like he was stabbing himself in the chest. It was painful. Almost too painful to bear.
But Zach knew deep down that he had no right to feel like this. The pain he felt was incomparable to the pain he had caused. His selfish actions had resulted in this living nightmare that everyone was suffering from. It was his fault. Everything was his fault.
Zach turned away from his bots to look around at the city. It was awful. Everything was a mess. If only he hadn't been so blinded by his need to defeat the Wild Kratts. Things never would have gotten this far.
But they did. And there was nothing Zach could do about it now. He had to live in this living Hell along with everyone else that was still alive.
And he would live with this regret for the rest of his life.